Description

MS in Energy Systems Management (USF Energy) is co-hosting a USF Energy Speaker Series with Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) at USF's downtown campus with Nikky Avila, Nirupama Prakash Kumar, and Sandra Kwak.

Dr. Nikky Avila has expertise in energy and climate policy in California, and in electricity access strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. She draws from engineering and urban planning to envision how the renewable energy transition can lead to more equitable socio-technical systems. She has led strategic engagement and local capacity building with inter-ministerial stakeholders in Southeast Asia, advising on strategy and policy across the water-energy-food nexus. She is currently a Senior Innovation Engineer at Pacific Gas and Electric where she works on microgrid technology innovation. Nikky has a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.

Nirupama Prakash Kumar is Senior Project Manager-Microgrids, Bloom Energy. Her complete bio is coming shortly.

Sandra Kwak is CEO and Founder of 10Power, a certified Benefit Corporation providing commercial-grade renewable energy internationally to communities that lack access to electricity. In Haiti, 10Power has developed and financed solar projects on water purification centers, health organizations and major international organizations. She is also a board member at the Foundation for Climate Restoration, working on solutions to bring the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere back down to 300 parts per million by 2050. She has a Sustainable MBA from Presidio Graduate School and has taught “Race, Activism and Climate Justice” at SFSU. Sandra sees renewable energy as the key to providing clean water, gender empowerment and access to regenerative technology – a concept explored in her TEDx talk “Fourth World Nation Building.”